Brutal eternity... Zardoz (1974)

Looking at the reviews on the IMDB many people still haven’t got this film: it’s most certainly not in the “so bad it’s good” category nor any kind of guilty pleasure that is laughably flawed. Indeed some commentators now rate it one of John Boorman’s best – just this month it made number 5 in Rolling Stones top science fiction films of the seventies.

Good science fiction is never about the gadgets on show, the flimsy clothes or the society of the future – these are just ways of looking at contemporary culture. So it is that Zardoz is about the world of 1973-4, the way it was and the way it could have been heading by 2293. How far away were the intellectual classes from a detached existence happy to arm a select group of “Brutals” in order for them to control the rest outside of their safe enclave? How far will we go to deny the external suffering that wars, famine and disease keeps away from our delusional comfort?

So, ignore the psychedelic sense of humour, the giant flying heads and the strange orange nappies of the Exterminators and focus on the Boorman’s messages about freedom, responsibility and the need to act… now. As the film’s writer, director and producer he surely meant every aspect as they are presented and this film addresses some of the same truths as his previous work, Deliverance.

The film is introduced by the disembodied head of Arthur Frayn  (Niall Buggy) who outlines the story in the manner of a medieval mummer… we are all the constructs he tells us looking straight into the camera: all made by our own Gods.

Brutal by name and nature

320 years after it was made, the World has descended into anarchy with the majority living a life of subsistence, their numbers strictly limited by teams of “exterminators” who rampage across the country slaying all they see in the name of their God, Zardoz. The killers all wear the same outlandish orange garb which might be laughable were it not for the guns and their delight in slaughtering others (imagine that dear 21st century reader?).

Zed in the head...

Zardoz appears to them in the guise of a giant floating stone head, issuing instructions and vast amounts of guns in exchange for receipt of the goods extracted from the murdered farmers. But one of these “Brutals” Zed (Sean Connery) wants to find out more and stows away hidden in some grain, he discovers the interior filled with shrink-wrapped humans being harvested for their natural energies. He spots the strange figure of Frayn who recognises Zed and tries to explain something… But Zed shoots, sending him falling to his doom and sits tight as the floating head continues on its way.

Zed and Zardoz come to ground in the well-kept gardens of what appears to be a paradise, brightly garbed young people mass around, well fed and full of almost childish wonder at the new arrival in their community: the Vortex. Two women lead the investigation Consuella (Charlotte Rampling), who’s instinct is to have Zed exterminated and the more considered May (Sara Kestelman) who wants him examined. Even in paradise there is disagreement…

Sean Connery and Sara Kestelman

Zed is confused and tries to lash out but soon learns that the Eternals have psionic powers that can easily over-power him. He is gifted to an outspoken man called Friend (John Alderton) who begins to tell his new servant of the society he has fallen into.

The people are nearly immortal with some living so long that they simply become Apathetics with no will to do anything other than just wander around whilst others break the rules and get aged as a punishment and there is a colony of such creatures who, dressed in dinner suits, wait in the hope of annihilation.

Trouble in paradise

Friend is on the diffident side of apathetic himself and longs for a change of pace even at the risk of punitive aging. The community vote on the transgressions of one George Saden (Bosco Hogan) who is docked some time for the crime of negativity.

Zed helps Friend with the artefacts

Friend was a, er, friend of Arthur Frayn  who had been charged with managing the Outlands and whom had been conducting his own unknown experiments including, it is later revealed a selective breeding programme involving Zed’s genealogical line. Whilst outside reproduction is forbidden saving these select few, in the land of the Eternals reproduction is no longer needed and sexuality has dwindled, what dangers does the potent Zed bring to the sterile society?

May continues to test Zed’s memory and capabilities and full marks to all concerned for keeping a straight face when all manner of visual stimuli fail to arouse Zed until he focuses his gaze on Consuella…  But then Zed is increasingly looking to be as smart as his captors…

Charlotte Rampling

Zed becomes a political issue and is used by Friend in an attempt to overthrow the existing order. Friend is caught and aged whilst Zed tries to escape only to find that a force field keeps him trapped in the Eternals’ land.

Returning to the community he finds May willing to show him their shared history of how an attempt to protect the last of humanity ended up dooming them to lifeless sterility under the control of an artificial intelligence, the Tabernacle. It gradually becomes clear that Zed is no chance invader but part of a deeper plan by Arthur Frayn to make or break what is left of society…

Dusty verdict: Detailing the plot of Zardoz is pretty pointless (sorry) as the story is so complex and, open ended with multiple interpretations. The actors carry so much of the meaning with Sara Kestelman being especially impressive. I saw her recently at London’s Donmar Warehouse theatre and she has lost none of her ability to express powerfully-deep thought.

Sara and Charlotte

It’s a brave choice for Sean Connery too in only his second post-Bond film and not just for the obvious reasons given Zed’s costume… he has to play a savage who gradually thinks himself into the awareness that he’s a physical and intellectual time-bomb (so only half-Bond then…). He plays well as do John Alderton – also outside of his own light-comic comfort zone and the stunning Miss Rampling (also still at work this time on TV’s Broadchurch) who’s able to convey fear masked with anger and perhaps more, her emotional subtlety the perfect match for Connery’s heroic certainty.

Zed learns the truth...

It’s a film that bears up to repeated viewing with a clever script that explains itself with satisfying twists and turns until the very end when the simple meaning becomes completely and devastatingly clear.

Buy it on DVD from Amazon or MovieMail. I believe a Blu-ray is also in the works...

Blank generation... Point Blank (1967)

Sometimes you watch a film through a prism of its own influence… here I could see the works of Steven Soderberg, Quentin Tarrantino and numerous others whilst I could also feel the influence of the contemporary European new wave of the earlier part of the decade.

Point Blank is startling from the off as your mind clicks off a constant stream of “ah, so that’s where that came froms…”  It’s so stylishly constructed by British director John Boorman – a modern-day noir that also manages social commentary and to question the nature of crime and criminals.

Lee Marvin

Boorman dislocates the temporal narrative, so that you’re never quite sure “when” things are happening. His characters are constantly thinking intensely of past events that led to the pivotal moments in the story and the director shows their thoughts as flashbacks that may only last a second but still serve to underlie their emotional condition and the film’s real intent.

Every action is linked to other actions and the leads are all caught up in the narrative momentum of lives lived in exhaustion and fear. This may even reflect the existential theatre of the period: Waiting for pay-off perhaps?
   

The tone is set in a breathless opening that sees lead character Walker (Lee Marvin) shot apparently dead at the end of a heist gone right. He is persuaded to hi-jack a regular mob cash exchange by his pal Mal Reese (John Vernon) who is in debt to organised crime and need to cover the cost or bust.

Mal pulls a drunken Walker to the floor and holds his head as close as he can in order to communicate his plan. It’s a strangely tender scene that mirrors later male and female positioning: these guys are close enough when they really need to communicate.

John Vernon, Lee Marvin and Sharon Acker

The job takes place at disused Alcatraz where Mal shoots dead the two men with the money – not part of the plan by Walker’s shock reaction – and then proceeds to trim down the team he is to share the loot with. In front of Walker’s distraught wife, Mal shoots his pal down just so he can take his $93,000.

Lynne (Sharon Acker) hadn’t seen this coming even though she has been sharing Mal’s bed for long enough: betrayal doubled or even tripled as Mal takes the jackpot.

Walker crawls into the sea

But, here’s the twist… Walker doesn’t die.

Boorman’s shaky, unsteady camera follows him as he gently falls into the sea, intent on swimming from the Rock to the shore. Walker has become almost inhuman but he is a man driven by the need to balance the books than simple revenge – perhaps that’s just his way of dealing with such compound treachery.

Next we see Walker on a tourist trip back to the former prison. Deep in his own thoughts we hear details of how so few men have ever escaped from Alcatraz and none of those were carrying bullet wounds. A man approaches Walker – Yost (Keenan Wynne), who appears to be a law officer intent on catching the mob funding Mel: he says he wants to help Walker as they have joint objectives. He gives him Mel’s address, a house he shares with Lynne…

Keenan Wynn and Lee

But as Walker smashes the door down in one brutal movement knocking his ex-wife senseless whilst pumping bullets into the bedroom, it becomes apparent that his adversary is no longer there.

Lynne is living a half-life – exhausted by guilt and Mel’s subsequent desertion. She’s like an animal waiting for the kill and her surprise at finding Walker alive is overcome by her expectation that she will – deservedly – die at his hands.

Walker and Lynne - ending and beginning

But, here’s the twist, Walker doesn’t kill her… she does that herself.

Walker looks out in emotionless despair to see Yost outside… time flows over weeks as he waits for one of Mel’s underlings to deliver Lynne’s monthly allowance. From him he follows a lead to a used car showroom run by the obsequious Stegman (Michael Strong). Walker smashes up one of Stegman’s cars with him in it – searching for a new lead.

Walker discusses Stegman's options

Turns out Mel may have been seeing Lynne’s sister Chris (Angie Dickinson) who runs a club downtown… Naturally it’s a trap and admits the realistically-sleazy bump and grind of the club, there’s a brutal, desperate and entirely believable bathroom battle between Walker and two of the hired hands. Marvin maybe shows some of his military training here – he fights dirty and effectively.

Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson

He finds Chris who is disgusted by the suggestion she has been Mel’s lover and only mildly surprised by her sister’s death: "…you were always the best thing about Lynne…” she tells Walker. Walker has only one thing on his mind and enlists her aid in getting to Mel.

But Mel will take some getting. By this stage we have met his paymaster, Frederick Carter (Lloyd Bochner), a businessman hidden in a room protected by layers of security: keeping the outside world from tainting his commercial reputation.

Middle and senior management

He helps set a trap for Walker by using Mel as bait: there are men all over the place and Mel is in the penthouse of an apartment building… surely there’s no way he can be reached?

But Walker has an ace to play: Mel was only ever after Lynne to get to her sister and will not refuse her request to visit… Chris smiles her way past the admiring guards whilst Walker sets off a distraction in a neighbouring apartment block.

Walker confronts Mel as Chris makes her get away...

As the police swarm around Mel’s protectors back off enough to allow Walker entry further and further into the building. It’s the kind of daring that you can believe – military moves and cold, calculation… like Michael Caine in Get Carter, Terrence Stamp in The Limey or Clint Eastwood in any one of two dozen films…

Walker finds Mel in bed with Chris who pushes him away with revulsion, her bravery rewarded. Mel is dragged out to his fate: as certain as Lynne of what Walker is capable of. But Walker only wants his $93,000. He’s not out for revenge just balance. So, when Mel tells him that the money is with his business bosses, Walker knows the only way to get to them is by disposing of Mel…

Next up is Walker, who offers sophistication that could undo Walker but he is rising to every challenge and, when it turns out that there are still further layers to unravel in search of redress, you know he will not be found wanting…

It’s a labyrinthine plot in true noire tradition, but the difference is that Walker is driven by his sense of honour: all he has left. It’s not really about the $93,000... he's just making a point to the mob and to himself.

Mr Lee Marvin

Lee Marvin is amazing in this role, a believable man of violence and yet with vulnerability that should be difficult to counterpoint this well. He even makes for a believable romantic lead not just in his early flashback encounters with Lynne but also as he and Chris are drawn together… filling the emptiness in each others' existence.

Angie Dickinson

Angie Dickinson is excellent as always… a fine actress with a great range who all too often got stuck in light comedy westerns or stuck as a beautiful adornment on the hero’s arm. Here she shows her own bravery as well as tenderness: her pity and passion mixed for her dead sister’s husband.

But the whole cast is uniformly on top form in what is deservedly regarded as something of a classic by one of the best British film-makers of his generation.

Point Blank is available from all good online retailers like Movie Mail as well as those with dodgy tax practices.

Dusty verdict: Recommended. Buy the DVD and you won’t be disappointed.